Communication 260: Intro Public Relations: Home

Here are some simple search tips for finding relevant articles and books:

Use AND/OR/NOT to combine/exclude words or phrases (this is called Boolean Searching):

Example Search Phrases: 

Basketball AND football = articles that have both basketball and football as topics together.

Basketball OR football = articles that have either basketball or football (or both) as topics. 

Basketball NOT football = articles that are about basketball and that exclude football (be careful, this can exclude a lot of useful resources since it will exclude articles that have both basketball and football together).

Phrase searching:
Put quotation marks around words you want to search as a phrase. Not generally used for single words.

Example Search Phrases:
"North Carolina"

 "Western Carolina University"

"confirmation bias"

Searching on the root word (also called Truncation):
Words may be shortened (truncated) using an asterisk. Most searches do this automatically, though Hunter Library's catalog search doesn't.

Example:
comput*   will find:
computing, computers, computerization, etc.

Searching in Google? Try their advanced search for similar options (and a few more!).

It is often difficult to determine the difference between the two types of periodicals - scholarly and popular.

Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines scholarly as: 1) concerned with academic study, especially research, 2) exhibiting the methods and attitudes of a scholar, and 3) having the manner and appearance of a scholar.  Popular means "adapted to or indicative of the understanding and taste of the majority... easy to comprehend." 

Click on the following link for more information on the differences between scholarly journals, popular magazines, and trade journals.

Link to PDF with the basics of APA 7th edition from the WALC.